The Portuguese international will now join up with the City boss after signing a five-year contract with the Treble champions after a completing his move from Wolves which will keep him at the Club until the summer of 2028.
Guardiola picked out the midfielder for special praise after City beat his Sporting side 5-0 in a Champions League clash in February 2022, and the compliment at least softened the blow of that heavy defeat.
“The game we had against City was not very good because we lost 5-0 when I was playing with Sporting,” our new number 27 said.
“I didn’t even see his interview, I only found out the next day when we were at breakfast in the club. Of course it felt very good to hear something like that from a coach like he is.
“It felt good, but I tried not to think about it because I would get too over the moon, you know.
“I know sometimes people get lost in those type of comments, so I tried not to think about it, but of course it’s very good to hear it.”
Nunes is now looking forward to getting even better under the guidance of Guardiola and playing alongside the talented City squad.
“He’s probably been the best in the world for so many years now and I think I am going to learn so much from him,” he said. “I think I can only see myself improving with him.
“Also, with all the teammates, the top quality players that we have with the squad so I think this is going to be a very good journey.”
The 25-year-old moved to Wolves the season after Guardiola’s praise and he quickly made an impact in the Premier League.
Nunes says he enjoys the intensity of English football and is looking forward to learning a different style of play at City where he expects to see a lot more possession.
“I’m very energetic as a player, I like I run a lot and the Premier League is very intense,” he added.
“There’s a lot of counter-attacks and fast attacks, so I think it suits [me] in that way.
“City play sometimes differently as well because I see they have the ball, they manage the ball, they manage the game so it’s good also for me to get used to that part again, because at Wolverhampton we played more counter-attacking of course so I think it’s very good.”
